


RED Strings of Fate

by CapturedInAPolaroid



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Alternative Universe - FBI, F/M, Prison, Red Strings of Fate, Romance, Soul Eater - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-16
Updated: 2014-06-06
Packaged: 2018-01-12 16:14:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1191552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CapturedInAPolaroid/pseuds/CapturedInAPolaroid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The red string of fate; the invisible red string that connects two soul mates. Failing her university law course, she's forced to find a job which ends up at the international prison. Maka Albarn did not expect to meet the murderer who is the reason for her sixth sense. The red string may stretch or tangle but never break.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part I

Chapter 1: Part I

RED STRINGS OF FATE

___

'The red string of fate is also known as the Red thread of destiny. It is the invisible red string that supposedly connects two people together, similar to the idea of soul mates. It is connected by being tied to the left pinky of both people but untouchable, uncut-able and un-seen to living people.

It is believed that only the grim reaper, lord Death himself can inherit and have the power to see, cut and re-tie these strings. In rare situations, it is also believed that those who once lived with Grigori souls can also sense these threads when dead but have no power to manipulate and cut them.

It is said that the red string may stretch or tangle but can never break, nor can it be traced back to the person on the other end-'

-She closed the book with a 'thump' causing a sheet of dust to explode from the timeworn parchment pages of the ancient primary source.

Maka Albarn had researched her odd 'gift' many times; after all, receiving 79% back from her previous test in her law course at Death City University gave her plenty of time to sloth around. It wasn't a terribly bad grade but considering she wanted to be a lawyer so bad and the fact that she usually would get over 85% over all subjects made her doubt herself. This meant she needed to get at least 98% on all the upcoming exams.

Not having enough points to be a lawyer would serve as a great disappointment to her but that didn't mean she wouldn't have enough points to set up a career in the medical field, right? Perhaps not as a surgeon though, she rolled her eyes, yet another disappointment.

She lied back on the ottoman bean bag in the corner of the 'Deaths Super Series' book store, looking out of the big store window to the empty autumn bursting cobble-stone streets outside. She sighed gently, leaning her head back to gaze at the ceiling, tossing her sandy-blonde hair behind her shoulder in the process.

No, she was not stupid. She didn't fail law because she didn't know the answers on her exam,

no, 

not because she didn't understand the government or democracies concept, not even because she didn't have what it takes to be a full time lawyer.

It was their fault that she was always daydreaming and unfocused.

Her parents' fault… She would probably fail law and school this year because of her parents' death.

Maka closed her jade eyes softly, taking in the sensation of darkness, darkness like her everyday life. It's not like she should pin the blame on them. She was just confused.

One minute she was happy, eating dinner at a five star restaurant that her parents payed for as a treat for completing her first semester of the end of college with straight A's, she had even aced Law at that time.

They even went as far as giving her a 4 inch, very thick and hardcover book on 'The strange myths of time' that she treasured as a memory of them. It was a customized version that they made themselves which was special because she knew that no one else could have the same book.

Then, her parents went ahead and dropped the bomb on her. They told her something that completely shattered her life.

They were having a divorce.

Sure, her father would come home drunk once in a while but Maka would just shrug this off as a reason for his stress relief from being the secretary of the CEO of some sort of organisation, she had forgotten the name but they were constantly competing against some other business. To top the divorce off, her parents had died in a car accident leaving Maka as the only survivor.

At least that's what the doctors and nurses told her after she woke up from a 6 day coma caused from an almost fatal blow to the temple, she had practically died for a minute before the paramedics were able to slightly resuscitate her. She was lucky, although, her brains limbic system is half dead therefore leaving her sense of smell glitched at times. This damaged part of her brain had left her head with illusions once in a while because she had a near death experience that pretty much left her mental.

That was another problem, Maka remembered very little about the time of the death. After she was told about her parents' broken marriage and her father's serial cheating, everything went black. Apparently she had suffered temporary semi-amnesia and temporary semi-insomnia as well. Not a thing from that night came back to her even though 12 weeks had passed and she was now in her mid-semester holidays, pumped to start her last term that would determine her career.

In some of her dreams and nightmares though, she would get flash backs of what happened when her parents died but not be able to remember in the morning when she woke up.

Maka opened her eyes to be met with the sight of the librarian who knew her all too well. "Mrs Marie! Are you okay, you look a little worried," she questioned, putting on a smile she stood up to face the pregnant woman.

"Oh I'm fine Maka sweetie, I was concerned about you is all, it's almost 4:00pm and I close early on Wednesdays. You must have been daydreaming deeply to not have heard me; I called your name seven times!" Marie Moljior laughed breezily. She was like a mother to Maka, letting her borrow books with a discount, bringing food over to her and having dinner with Maka whenever she was lonely, she was a mother that Maka could never have anymore.

"Sorry," Maka scratched her neck nervously, "I was just thinking about…things…"

Miss Marie gave a pitiful smile knowingly, "That's alright Maka sweetheart, and I'm always here for you."

"I know," Maka whispered, gazing at her black shoes sadly.

"That reminds me, how is your job hunting going, are you hired yet?" Marie asked, she had changed the subject.

"Oh! I forgot! I've been here all day and I haven't searched yet!"

"Well, you better get going than sweetheart, but remember that I can employ you in ten weeks since one of my girls are leaving for college. Sorry that I don't have a position open right now."

"That's okay; I'll keep it in mind! Bye Mrs Marie."

Marie waved back at the young 21 year old from behind the printed-on glass window and sighed. She hated keeping secrets from the troubled girl but she had to follow through with her orders.

She turned to straighten up some books on the book shelf and noticed that Maka had left the book she was reading on the floor. Rolling her eyes with a small smile she picked up the turned-over opened book and closed it to reveal the cover, reading the title.

'Legend of the Red Strings of Fate – Written by Dr Franken Stein'

Her Golden eyes widened.

She didn't think anyone would come across this book, it was stuffed at the very back corner of the shelves away from prying eyes where no one would see it unless they were looking for it.

___

"Gi'me the tray! You two-inch creep!" A grumpy worker huffed, grimacing through the high tiny prison cell window slot.

"But I'm not finished yet," came the quiet husky reply from behind the cold dark iron bars that sealed off any access to the face sized window.

"SO WHAT YOU MAN WHORE! Give me the damn tray without trying to rape anyone in the process you murdering freak!"

The loud stubby man grinned with satisfaction as a flimsy harmless plastic tray slipped out from the unlocked mail-slot-like opening in the thick heavy prison door, onto the workers trolley stacked with other trays from the previous cells. Along with the tray came the few bits of oatmeal and bread that the criminal inside had not had enough time to finish.

"I didn't do it," mumbled the prisoner's strained voice followed by continuous raspy dry coughs. The tray collector only answered with a series of laughs, his round bald head and cheeks turning rosy and amused at the criminal who was in a horrible distressed state.

"Of course you did it, even and idiot knows that!" He wiped his grubby fingers on his formerly white apron after tipping the trays contents into a plastic bag hanging off the side of the trolley. "There was evidence. You were caught on the footage of the bars security cameras you smartass punk." He huffed.

By now the coughing behind the strong bound walls finally stopped as the owner of the voice spoke once again, recovering from his lung's attack.

"I'm not a 'smartass punk' you uncool fat-ass, you're the only person who can be seen from space-Ahhh!" the prisoner grimaced, tears that would have fallen no longer did as he had not water or salt left in his body to produce such a normal reflex.

The sharp pain of electricity coursed through his veins for the second time as the tray collector pulled the smoking teaser out from the window slot, glaring down at the criminal thrashing about and clutching his stomach in pain.

"Tch, you deserve that you mutt faced killer…" the chubby man sneered, he chuckled lowly strolling past the automatic doors after scanning his security card to the next gloomy hallway where other inmates were kept.

___

A/N: How was it? 

Should I continue? 

Has anyone heard of the red strings of fate before? 

I know it was a pretty uneventful chapter but it will get better I promise, I just had to set the storyline out first.


	2. Part II

Part II

"Huuuuuh…." Maka Albarn groaned as she roamed around on the warm morning streets of Death City with aching feet and tired eyes. It had been a day since she went to Mrs Marie's library and searched for jobs; it was 11:30 am now, yes she was tired...insomnia had kicked in last night. With very few hours of sleep, after getting up at 6:00am, she continued to wonder the morning with an out-of-time body clock, ready to head home.

She had search high and low for an available job but it seemed that no one was hiring during the school holidays, when their children would be helping them and when many other students, just like herself, would want to earn some money an make use of their break too.

Even if a shop would be offering a part time job it would definitely not be in her range of skills. Most of the places that were employing, she had noticed, were fast food places, bakeries and small cafes with horrible pay.

'What luck,' the 21 year old thought to herself, rolling her jade eyes as she passed yet another bakery...Now she really wished she took cooking classes in high school.

She sighed loudly again, running her slender fingers through her blonde hair while trying to get her fringe out of her annoyed face.

Whoever her soul mate, "Mr Right" was, he better hope he could cook because Maka knew for a fact that she really couldn't.

Maka's face softened at the sight of her one-bedroom apartment coming into view.

Home Sweet Home.

At last. The complex did not consist of very much; a small kitchen and living room that shared one room, a tiny bathroom and also a bedroom (used for her study too) which seemed to be the only room that was a decent size.

Maka entered her apartment, placing her keys on the kitchen counter. As she reached over to grab her forgotten phone from the bench but she tripped miserably.

"Owww!..." She whimpered, looking over to see that she had tripped over the 4 inch, hardcover, 'The Strange Myths of Time' book her parents gave.

Her face creased in distaste. "Gah! What the hell!" It seemed she only got twice as clumsy after owning that thing, after tripping over day after day.

"This is so not my day…" She got up from the cold kitchen ground, leaving the damn book, and proceeded to check her phone. Maka turned it on to find that she had 1 missed call and 1 message.

With happy realization, the call was from her good friend Tsubaki. She had met Tsubaki at school as they attended the same collage, they kicked it off really well.

Maka read the text message that was displayed on her screen.

'Meet me at the Belle Café at 1:00 pm, I have really good news. <3 T'

...

Marie Moljir Power walked down the corridor, heels clicking against the white tile floor.

"I'm late! Again!" She whispered loudly, checking her watch as she approached the large golden double-doors at the end of the hallway.

"I'm so sorry! I know I'm very late! I accidentally walked into the wrong room, they were investigating a missing person, anyways, off topic, I'm so sorry! It won't happen again Lord Death." Marie had entered to find her team and the Mayor of the city all sitting around the round mahogany table chatting and waiting for the meeting to commence.

Lord Death in return laughed childishly. His shoulders, through the large black coat, shook with character as his white skull mask showed none.

"Calm down Mrs Moljir, you were only…" Lord Death checked the clock hanging above the entrance on the Black painted wall, "…8 minutes late. I would have made an exception anyways with that baby of yours." He laughed gently, "Please take a seat. By the way...Stein was getting worried y'know." Lord Death put up his two fingers forming the peace sign at the grey haired scientist/doctor who glared back at the chirpy-voiced Mayor.

Marie smiled gently at her husband Dr Franken Stein; he was trying to avoid her gaze out of embarrassment. Marie gave him a quick peck on the cheek from behind him as he turned to meet her gaze. She sat down on his left, secretly peering underneath the expensive table, she spotted his hand on his thigh. It was opened and waiting like it always did. She looked up to smile at the rest of her team after entwining her fingers with her husband as they always secretly did.

"Okay," Lord Death started, "I know that not all of you are clear on why you are here, I will explain soon but Firstly I need you to know something. For this unusual case, I as the leader of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mayor of Death City want to keep all of the citizens of America safe. This is, as usual, a top secret investigation of crime," He stated, suddenly mood from before had vanished and the once immature Lord Death speaks with every bit of seriousness in his odd voice.

A hand rose from the left of Dr Stein, indicating that the woman wanted to speak and without any confirmation to do so, she spoke straight away, "So, what is the crime we are investigating?" The Japanese woman who spoke wore a stiff pale face, proving that she didn't get out much. She donned glasses and a black suit, had short raven and black styled hair. Everything she wore spelled out that she was a woman who meant Business.

"May I explain?" Marie asked Lord Death who answered with a nod and leaned back in his chair. Marie stood up to address the team, "Well, Firstly, the new comers who have been specially chosen to join this case are Azusa , Sid, and another very important man to the case who has not arrived in Death City yet. Azusa and Sid, meet Death the Kidd, Elizabeth Thompson, Patricia Thompson, BlackStar, Dr Franken Stein, Tsubaki N who cannot be here with us today and I, Marie Moljir."

"Tsubaki's on another mission at the moment," clarified Dr Stein, pulling out a cigar from his stitched lab coat pocket.

"Anyways," Marie said, "Together, we have been researching the night of March the 3rd roughly six months ago since it happened. On the night there was a massacre that stole the life 18 people, one of them being Kami Albarn, a member of our team. Her daughter supposedly survived but we have had no trace of her until last week thanks to our Agent Cameilia - Tsubaki. She attended the DWMA as an undercover student and has found that another student there matches all the facts together. It was a possibility that Kami's daughter has lost her memory, died or even moved on with a life outside the city. Either way, we needed to track her down." Marie paused momentarily as the baby kicked gently at her womb.

"Wait," said Sidd, the tall muscular man with unusual blue body art, all of which tell a different story of his fights and missions, "What is the crime and why is the young Albarn so important?"

Marie sat, Stein took a long drag out of his cigarette, "The Murder was committed by a gang that called themselves 'Arachnophobia', the gang leader was a drug crazed twenty-six year old by the name of Wes Evans, and he framed the murder on his younger brother who is now a victim of the Federal prison."

"Why can't we just ask for a court session and prove him innocent? Lord Death, don't you have the power? I mean, you are the Mayor." Azusa questioned.

"I may be the Mayor but I am no lawyer. His innocence has not been proven because we need a reliable lawyer who is not driven into pity when they face the crying friends and family of the 18 victims whose innocent lives were stolen. We also need the right evidence and more answers." Lord Death explained.

"Look," said a light Auburn/blonde haired girl who had been painting her nails the entire time, "I've been helping out with this case since we started to investigate and even I am getting confused."

"Let me explain, Liz," A young man with stern Golden eyes and unusual white striped hair straightened out his suit, wiping at invisible specks of dust, "Kami Albarn's daughter goes to the DWMA, as the undercover students there, We have come to the conclusion that-"

Kidd was suddenly interrupted by the sound of methane gas.

Someone had farted.

"YAAHOOOOO!" Yelled an up-until-now silent blue haired male, "I'VE BEEN HOLDING THAT GODLY RIPPER IN FOR AGES! WHOOO! CAN YOU SMELL THAT?" He asked as he nudged the disturbed looking Liz next to him. Patty, the youngest of the team and sister of Liz giggled hysterically.

BlackStar waved his hand in front of his face as an attempt at fanning the rotten-eggy smell from the air, "JESUS! I REALLY LET IT RIP THIS TIME, SHOULD HAVE LAYED OFF ON THE BEANS THIS MORNING-."

"BlackStar! May I continue?!!" Kidd raised his brow at the shameless 22 year old. After earning a sheepish look from the male in question, he continued. "As I was saying, we have come to a conclusion that Maka Albarn is the Daughter of Kami Albarn."

"No shiz," BlackStar gasped mockingly.

"She is vital to this case because Arachnophobia murdered the 18 victims with a smuggled substance that we call the 'black blood'. The black blood has thankfully not spread and infected anyone alive today. We have to demolish this drug that has the capacity to turn America into no-man's land. Members of Arachnophobia died when the bomb they planted to Kill Kami's family was faulty and killed them along with it. So the good news is that there is no enemy to fight in our case but the black blood. Knowing that the smugglers were after the black blood that had been put into the care of the police force, Kami and her husband had to find a way to hide the drug loaded syringe long enough until the police got the okay from the government to put the substance into quarantine and demolish of it. Unfortunately, the message was delayed with the massacre and Kami Albarn was murdered. On the better side, Mrs Albarn was able to hide the black blood so the smugglers and their leader could not locate it. Unfortunately, it was so last minute that even we don't know. We do not know but we believe Maka Albarn has the answer to our problems. So there are two main parts of our investigation to complete. Find Maka Albarn to tell us where the Black Blood is and destroy the black blood that her mother has hidden then finally, with this evidence of the drug we will be able to free the innocent Evans' younger son who has been wrongly accused. Failing in our case may lead to America's dooms day because, as I said before, that black blood is still out there and no one is safe until it is destroyed."

Silence pursued, though was broken when Azusa spoke, "I understand...but, you mention Kami Albarn a lot, what happened to her husband?" she pointed out cleverly.

Just then the golden double doors opened and Lord Death stood up surprised at the intruder.

"This was unexpected. I thought he wouldn't be able to make it in time. Anyways...FBI Team Spartoi, meet the breakthrough in our investigation, Spirit Albarn."

...

"Tsubaki!" Maka called, waving to a Japanese girl around her age from a two seater table outside the small café.

"Good morning Maka-Chan! How has job hunting been?" Tsubaki had soft sapphire blue eyes, jet black hair that reached just below her bottom and a figure that Maka secretly was jealous of.

Maka's cheery face dropped at the question. "Not as I had hoped. No one seems to be hiring, Tsubaki. That and I've been in such a daze lately. Guess what? I got 79% in the term 3 law test. 79%! I'm going to have to work so much harder next term. I really need to get a job before the bills interfere with my studies too."

Tsubaki smiled gently, her natural soft and understanding nature shining through, "Well actually, that's what I wanted to talk to you about."

Maka perked up from her slumped position in her seat. "Huh?"

"I got you a job," Tsubaki smiled anxiously, waiting for her friend's reaction.

Maka registered her words slowly.

"YOU WHAT?!" Maka screamed, knocking her chair over in the process of jumping up stealing the attention of bystanders.

"Maka-chan!" Tsubaki whispered, eyes darting to apologize to the interrupted people. "Maka-chan please sit down."

Maka looked around to see that everyone had gotten back to their food so she sat down quickly and asked her friend once again. "You did what Tsubaki?"

"I got you a job at Death City's Federal prison."

Maka's eyes sparkled with relief and happiness, "Oh my God! When? Why, Tsubaki?"

"Yesterday night, I know someone who works there and they said they have a position open. You get paid 20 bucks a shift! I know the job isn't great and you'll probably hate it but I wanted to help you out since I knew that you needed to earn some cash."

"OH MY GOD TSUBAKI! I love you so much! I can't believe you did this for me! When do I start?"

"The warden said to meet him at 5:30 pm tonight for the dinner shift. If you want the job, its yours."

"Tsubaki, I love you soooo much!" Maka embraced her friend tightly before they had lunch together and parted ways. Maka needed to head home and get some reading done before 5:30 came around.

When Maka left, Tsubaki walked around the corner of an old abandoned church after catching a bus to the address. The church was one that was unused since decades ago and was not in the main part of the city. It was a few minutes away from the Prison and Jail that were both on the outside of town too. Inside the church she unlocked and opened a trap door beneath the hollow cloth covered altar which leads her to modern white title stairs.

The stairs then lead to a set of old brick walls that acted as a fake block off while they were really a security door for the FBI. She pushed the right bricks which then caused the whole wall to open. It revealed a large metal black automatic door that was opened when she scanned her FBI card through a secret slot in the walls. The door leads to the reception and lounge of the FBI agency.

"Back so soon?" Tsubaki turned to meet the chest of her boyfriend who had just come down the stairs of the west wing, the boys dorms were there.

"BlackStar!" She hugged him tightly.

"How did the mission go Tsubaki?" He said, lifting her up bridal style as they jumped onto a couch where around them, other agents of the FBI were either on laptops, reading or watching 'Criminal Minds' on TV.

"Maka accepted the job; I'll have to report the success later to Lord Death and the team."

...

Beep, 

Beep, 

Beep

He registered the slowly sound of his heart beat before he woke up in the prison infirmary. That damn fat tray collector had almost killed him before. At least the security guards had come in time and he was still alive.

'So uncool.'

He wanted so badly for his life to be over.

'The new replacement won't see it coming.' He thought to himself deviously.

He was going to take his revenge out on this new employee, perhaps he can break out of prison this time.

It is worth a shot, third time lucky he guessed.


	3. Part III

Part III  
..

Maka ran down the small hallway of her apartment. She checked her watch; it read 5:27pm.

"Damn it!" she cursed, making her way out of the apartment before going back in to retrieve her old mobile phone and exiting for the second time.

In a black and red plait skirt and white blouse, she walked down to the bus stop where she rode the 45-seater from the city center to the International Federal Prison of Death City, outside of town.

Paying the bus-driver and leaving, she couldn't help the hop to her steps.

"Um, hi, I'm here for the job," Maka said as she arrived at the large threatening iron gates, smiling up at a tall buff man standing by the lock with another man to his left.

He didn't answer, just looked on ahead as if he didn't even notice her.

"Okaaayy…" Maka drawled out awkwardly. "Um…hellooooo?" She called, reaching up onto her toes and waving a hand in front of the big man's moustache. "I said I was here for the job, my name is Maka Albarn and my friend Tsubaki said that she got me a job here at the priso-,"

The bald guard rolled his eyes. He bent down slightly and spat at Maka, "I don't see a security card on you! Staff allowed in only, pipsqueak!" He then stood up straight again and stared ahead like nothing happened, ignoring the 21 year-old's shocked expression which then revolved into anger.

"WHAT? The nerve! That is no way to treat a woman!" Maka frowned, crossing her arms and stoping her foot for emphasis.

The man looked back down at the infuriated and short girl. He scrutinized her up and down until his eyes landed on her chest and he smirked slightly. "Tch, with that chest...what woman?"

Maka was steaming uncontrollably…

"MAKAAAA - CHOP!"  
...

"Hello hello heellooooo~, let the meeting commence!" Lord Death announced, clapping his large gloved hands for attention before taking his seat at his end of the round table. All the agents of the 'FBI team Spartoi' were called upon for a second meeting that night. "So, as you all should know, we are here today to discuss a break through in our case -50U1BlackBlood-."

"Let me guess, It wouldn't happen to involve this dick would it?" BlackStar grumbled with his feet on the table, jerking his thumb in the direction of the sobbing adult to his left.

The wailing man grabbed his brawn blue-haired teammate in desperation, with equally buff arms from decades of crime fighting experience.

"You'd be crying too, you star-headed ninja if you found out your long lost daughter was alive!" The granate-red coloured haired man wailed, shaking BlackStar to and fro on his seat.

"Calm your tits grandpa, she isn't long-lost if you haven't even been separated for a year yet! even I know that! Wait, Of course I know! I'M A GOD!" The 22 year old agent yelled at an attempt to get the depressed father off his shoulder.

Kidd's brow twitched with every word, "BlackStar, stop claiming that! You're twenty-two for shinigami's sake!"

The rest of the team wore questioning expressions, very unimpressed with the scene unfolding before them.

"Ahem..." Tsubaki coughed awkwardly, trying to take the attention off her unashamed boyfriend and his captor. "So, I have good news for the case; Mak- i mean- Miss Albarn has taken up the job at the international Prison of Death City. She started her first shift about twenty minutes ago."

"Good work Agent Camellia. Did you make sure that she got the job as Eater's responsibility?" Lord Death questioned.

"Yes sir," Tsubaki answered, beaming with pride, "I told undercover-agent Justin Law specifically".

"Good, good. Now we know for sure that Eater is in humble hands," Lord Death breathed a sigh.

"As for the Black Blood?" Azusa questioned, caring more about the main threat of the case...per usual.

"We have no leads on it, especially now that we know that Spirit knows nothing," Stein grumbled, lighting a cigarette causing Liz sitting next to him to cough and wave the smoke away from her face.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Spirit said, finally pulling away from the exasperated BlackStar, "'She' hid the syringe in a place I don't know, we had a fight before we took my baby Maka out to dinner so she never told me where she hid it."

"She?" Kidd raised his brow, pointing out the lost but stressed detail.

Spirit looked away with pain in his features, hot tears threatening to fall if he didn't wipe them away. He couldn't answer that question…

he wouldn't.

"'She' is Kami Albarn…" Marie said, answering the question for the red-head who looked distraught.

"Oh, I see…," Mumbled the apologetic Kidd.

"What do we do now that we have no leads on the Black Blood?" Sid pointed out.

"Actually, Patty, Kidd and I have found some insiders on Maka's part." Liz smirked with pride, sliding paper documents across the rich mahogany table and folding her arms across her full chest.

"WHAT! DIRT ON MY BABY GIRL?" Spirit exclaimed narrowing his accusing coral blue eyes at the parchment coloured official papers that landed directly in the middle of table top. He took a dramatic grab for it before opening the folder, revealing a portrait of his 21 year old daughter in her DWMA uniform. His eyes shone with happiness as he mumbled things like 'she's so cute!' or 'my baby girl has grown so much' to himself.

"Now that we know who Kami Alban's daughter is, we have been able to recover some information on the girl," Kidd explained, ignoring Spirit's rambling. The young dark haired boy closing his eyes while leaning his elbows on the table professionally. "It is her school profile, if you look through to the fourth page; it reveals that she is undertaking law."

"Yes," Perked up Tsubaki with interest in something she already knew, "She has been studying Law at the DWMA University since she was 17 and 10 months and she is 22 in a few months which makes it almost five years in which she has already got her bachelor's degree. Maka is now half way there to getting her doctorate degree which will enable her to take the bar test in her next and final year of study before she is officially a lawyer. 7-8 years in total depending on what type of lawyer she chooses to be."

"Well that's good news," said Azusa, picking up the photograph of Maka Albarn that the still-smiling-and-mumbling Spirit placed on the table next to him while browsing through her forms. Azusa analysed the picture.

Maka appeared to be a lot younger than 21. She wore a bright-toothed-grin that reached her beaming emerald eyes. Her chocolate-blonde hair was worn in two half pony-tails and her pale skin was embellished with rosy cheeks. Overall, the strict woman thought the young female was rather adorable and couldn't hold back a smile at how well she was doing despite the drama in her life. 'Kind of reminds me of myself,' thought Azusa smugly.

Suddenly, Spirit abruptly stopped shuffling through the papers as he stopped talking to himself.

"OH? IS SPIRIT-SENSEI OKAY SISSY?" Patty deliberated aloud, tilting her curious blonde head to the side to trying to catch a glimpse of the man's face.

Liz paused from filing her nails which she had taken upon when bored halfway through the meeting. "Mr Albarn? Helloooo…?"

The emotional father had his head bowed, mood damp, concentrating on the paper in his hands and shadowing his incomprehensible expression.

Stein, in the seat next to the man in question eased the sheets from Spirit's grasp. Inspecting them he identified them as Maka Albarn's medical certificates. There were several of them stating all the injuries and damages following the accident.

'So this is what made Spirit freeze,' Stein thought, glancing at the motionless male through his glinted glasses that he pushed back onto the bridge of his nose. Stein blew a puff from his cigar before reading through the medical forms.

A sharp un-manly sob cut through the atmosphere, like dropping a delicate porcelain vase in a mute library.

"Dude, you're starting to freak me out!" Exclaimed BlackStar, his horrid self was reeling back from the weeping man next to him onto Tsubaki's lap.

"She's lost some memory," Stein remarked, alarming Lord Death and the team.

"What?"

"Yeah, it says here on the doctor's certificates from after the accident." He slid the documents across the table landing them in front of Kidd and Liz. Kidd specified all the damages from the massacre.

"It says here she has temporary amnesia, signs of insomnia and half her brains limbic system operates with support causing her some smell failure on some occasions and she can get hallucinations." Kidd looked up to BlackStar who had leaped off Tsubaki. "She didn't tell you about this? I mean, you and Tsubaki are her undercover friends, despite the fact you knew her as a child as well BlackStar."

Tsubaki was stunned, "Really? I mean Maka is in her own world at times but…She never said anything about t-that."

Spirit continued to sniff softly to himself, accepting a handkerchief that Patty had grinningly offered to him. After him blowing his nose he handed it back to her making her giggle at the dirty cloth before secretly stuffing it into kid's left pocket.

"Maka thinks her parents died in a car crash remember?" Maire asked, "I was ordered to tell her so and hide all the records of the massacre from the poor girl. She doesn't let many people in because she was mentally wrecked when…well Spirit cheated on his wife before her murder so...," said Marie, peering at the Albarn who seemed to only dramatically and exaggeratingly cry more at the memory.

"Okay, so what now?" Sid asked Lord Death.

"Well I guess all we can do is confront her at the international Prison through Agent Justin and get her to spill the beans on where her mother hid the Black Blood. We will formulate the plan tomorrow as I have other businesses to attend. So, I suppose the meeting is over for now." Lord Death said, dismissing team Spartoi.

Lord Death walked through a door at the back of the room which was disguised as a full-lengthen mirror.

Everyone had left the meeting room, either to go to their dorm to rest and wait for orders or to go research on their current cases.

Spirit walked up to his assigned dorm slowly, "My baby girl," He whispered with a sob, "My poor baby Maka…"


	4. Part IV

Part IV

"We do apologize again for that mishap dear," the prison's warden said. The man's male voice was thick and odd.

His appearance is that of a short old man, his height similar to that of a 7 year-old child. He had a large pointy nose and white-grey hair and moustache on his olive-grey skin. He wears a classic wardrobe; consisting of a formal black suit and white under shirt, completed with a black bow tie and a relatively large black top hat that made him look taller than he really was.

"Oh! Um…that's really okay, you honestly don't have to apologize, Mr Mosquito." Maka answered shyly as she shadowed behind her petit employer who was leading her to the staffroom. The memory of Maka-chopping the rude guard was guilty in her current thoughts.

"I told them to look out for the new worker who was coming at 5:30 but as you arrived 10 minutes late they must have disregarded the order." He stated while turning down another white painted hallway.

Suddenly she felt very un-punctual. "Um…A-about that-"

"No no, it's fine dear; after all it is your fist time." He took a left one last time before coming to a halt at glass sliding doors. "Anyways, welcome to the staffroom. This is where you will be staying in between shifts."

Maka stepped into a room after the short-old warden scanned his security card, opening the door. The room was…clean.

She couldn't hold back a smile.

There was a mini kitchen on the left and a computer next to it, right at the left of the door. A small restroom labelling the female's from the male's took up the right hand side and a large message board and pigeon holes covered the very back wall.

In the middle of the room were two red double-seater couches, one dark-brown three-seater sofa and a single creamy-white armchair. All the seats surrounded and faced a black marble coffee table. The small kitchen bench was carved from smooth and shiny black stone. The bathroom doors were painted a coal black too while all the walls were a classy white. The Pigeon-hole-shelves were an amber red colour sitting next to the dark brown message pin board that was scatted with sticky notes and time-tables.

"What do you think?" The mosquito look-alike said, unfailing to snap Maka from her inner awe.

She turned and looked down to the small man, "Wha-? Oh! You mean the room…um," She turned around again to walk toward the white armchair. Maka ran her hand across the fake leather and smiled once again, "It's really nice...beautiful," She remarked, rotating to face her boss, "I like it."

"I'm glad, there are many other workers here, they are on their shifts at the moment but when they return; get them to get you ready for the delivering-dinner shift at 6:00pm. In the meantime, make yourself comfy, I'll send Kim and Jacqueline for you." He said before bowing with a tip of his top-hat and departed the room.

Maka placed her bag onto one of the empty shelves of the red pigeon holes and realised that her name had already been stuck on the ridge.

She browsed through all the names pinned to a timetable on the message board, reading them aloud to herself. It stated all the people who shared this room, apparently there were two staffrooms in the whole building.

"Ox Ford

Harvar D. Éclair

Kim Diehl

Jacqueline O. Lantern Dupré

Justin Law

Kirikou Rung

Hiro

And Maka Albarn." Her name had been scribbled in with pen, seemingly just added on unlike the other's that were printed. Maka smiled, finally she is getting somewhere.

...

He was ready.

He sat facing the door and he was ready.

The prisoner glared at the cell's entrance, waiting.

He was waiting and ready.

The moment the new replacement unlocks the door, he was going to make his move.

'I'm sick of this damn abusive hell, I've been here almost three months! Third time lucky, third time lucky, third time lucky,' He repeatedly thought with determination.

The mini door was always opened for the prisoners to receive dinner. It was eaten inside the cell unlike lunch that was eaten with the other inmates.

The inmate was waiting, ready for the door to open.

...

After wondering around the staff-room for a little while, Maka opened the door to the knock of two girls seemingly her age. They were deemed very nice and sweet.

Kim, a 22 year-old with pink-dyed pixie-styled hair, was smiley and reminded Maka of Tsubaki.

Jacqueline, who insisted Maka call her Jackie, was a brunette who seemed blunter and sarcastic but was respected by the newbie who was urged into a black apron.

Kim was happy to hand Maka her red name-badge and security-card.

'DON'T lose it!' Kim had said seriously.

It was the only way for Maka to access automatic and locked doors throughout the building and it served as a key to the cellmates' letter-slot-like openings for the inmates to slide their trays through later when she came around to collect them.

Jackie had wheeled in a three-decker tier-trolley after her when entering causing Maka to raise an eyebrow. There was also a thick white garbage bag attached to one end of the cart. She said it was what Maka would be using to take the meals around to each cell on the 3rd level with.

Maka was taught to open the thick metal cell door with her card which then revealed another door. The second door was a cage like door with bars that were built close together, a design so that the inmates couldn't reach through it.

In the middle of the barred door was a slid-able opening, it was sized to fit the necessary meals and could only be opened from the outside. She would be required to push the small tray onto a wall table (or in this case a wall table that was attached to a door instead) that was situated right under the opening in level with the bottom of the mini window-like slot.

They were simple steps that she could handle. Besides, on her first shift a guard was going to lead her and make sure she was safe.

Knock

Knock

Knock

"D-dinner…," Maka stammered nervously, sliding an A4-paper sized tray under the cage-like door to a tall, dark and cornrows haired man.

She still wasn't used to greeting the inmates and handing them their food, regardless of the fact this cell was second last on the floor. Only one more left to go after this.

The stereotypical tattooed, brawny, bald and pierced criminals existed here.

They existed very lively here.

"Mm-mm…" the man hummed with hunger and smiled at her as he took his tray to his bed after she closed the mini metal slide window.

Some of the men on the level she was supposed to serve greeted her nicely and 'the new replacement' or 'Miss Albarn', as she came around. She had even been called 'dolly' and 'kitty' which had made her blush furiously. Some looked surprised at the new face and most were relieved to see that apparently 'Eugene' was gone.

"Last one hey Miss Maka?" 28 year-old Hiro said as he walked beside her.

"Finally," Maka answered the guard who had volunteered to show her the fastest route around level three with a sigh.

Level three was the smallest floor of only 40 cells, two security offices and four guard stations.

Level two consisted of 80 cells which the jobs for were shared among two people. It also had the shower room which contained 40 shower stalls in which the inmates were taken in turns to shower. There were also two security offices and 8 guard stations.

Level one was the largest; it involved the cafeteria, assembly hall, infirmary and roughly ten offices of all sorts.

Outside were also the very wide playing courts for the inmates' free time between Lunch and dinner. As you would imagine, there were over 10 security and guards stations outside. The outside boundaries were marked with a strong iron metal fence fixed off with barbed wire.

Hiro laughed gently, shaking his head to himself with a grin. "After about two shifts you get used to it, besides, level three inmates are the best behaved in the whole entire prison," He reassured her.

Maka pushed away the thought that maybe that was due to the fact they held half the amount of prisoners.

She scanned her new key-card and the automatic door leading to the next cell opened. Another reason the level was more secure; doors separated the hallway of each cell and cameras were installed in every cell and cell-door. This advanced security controlled floor-three because the more corrupt criminals were kept here.

Knock

Knock

Knock

Maka rapped the heavy door to alarm the captive that she was here before disturbing them by scanning her card and opening the door.

"Din…ner…" the last syllable was trailed off slowly as she opened the door and mistakenly slid the food window open to reveal something she did not expect.

She was very intimidated.

The criminal had gone ahead and leant on the cage door, smirking at her intensely. Maka jumped back slightly. His blood-red eyes bored into her emerald. His smirk of sharp teeth was frightening and white-blonde hair shadowed his head.

"Ahh!" Maka leapt back towards Hiro and the guard held his teaser up to the prisoner.

The criminal looked like he was about to say something before he adverted his eyes to the guard. The inmate's wide smirk disappeared and was replaced with a frown when he realised that his diner-deliverer was not alone.

"Step back Eater!" Hiro commanded sternly.

'Eater' hesitated to turn away and took two strides back towards his bed before jumping onto it and looking away, not before stealing one last look at the short girl standing behind the young bright-blonde security guard.

"It's okay Maka, trust me, there are workers monitoring the security screens every hour of the day and night of the week, 24/7. There's nothing to be afraid of because the inmates can't hurt you. Even if they try, the alarm would be sounded and guards would be coming to your rescue," He said tenderly.

Hiro pried the small tray of food out of the pale girls slightly trembling hands. He roughly shoved the dinner onto the attached table and slammed the slide-opening shut.

Maka blinked once…

Twice…

Three times.

She looked down at her black apron gently and shook the chills off her body.

An then she saw it, the trauma of the night of her parents death came back to haunt her.

The illusions were back…

Maka opened her eyes, they were wide and a shining bright Chartreuse.

She could see the red strings again...


	5. Part V

"I'm sorry Kiddo!" Patty giggled and half-heartedly apologized to the young shinigami. She clung onto his pant leg as he struggled to get her off.

Kidd looked away, "You'll have to do better than that Patty. And Liz, why don't you get you sister off me!" he wailed as he started to forcefully stomp around.

Liz looked up boringly from her magazine, "Just tell her she's forgiven Kidd, she'll get off." Liz smiled slightly as Kidd turned to face her, alarmed.

"NO WAY! SHE PUT A SNOTTY ASYMETRICAL HANKERCHEIF INTO THE POCLKET OF MY FAOURITE SUIT! IT COMPLETELY DESTROYED THE BALANCE."

Patty and Liz both laughed at the memory of Kidd rubbing snot on the inside of his other slack's pocket for the symmetry.

The golden eyed boy continued to lecture the immature blonde on how 'Symmetry is key, everything must be aesthetically pleasing,' and so on.

"Ahem," Azusa grunted, "Lord Death why are we not getting on with the meeting?"

Stein interjected the boss's response, "Because Marie isn't here yet. Where could she possibly be?"

...

Marie Moljir ran toward the old abandoned church outside the main bustling city, her run looking more like a hobble due to the pregnancy of her baby-girl reaching seven months in her stomach.

She was late for her meeting…again!

"Ah! Mrs Marie, welcome back." Lord death greeted as the puffing woman entered the original meeting room.

The mother tried to explain quickly through huffs of air, "Please…excuse me again…Lord Death…I-."

"Hiya, Marie! Take a seat, there's no need to apologize Agent Mattsui (demon hammer). I understand that your well on your way to becoming a mother of a young boy." Lord Death seemed to grin under his skull mask.

Marie exhaled gently, a small smile playing on her lips at the thought of finally being a mother. She gingerly took a seat to the empty place next to her husband.

"Oh! And by the way, Stein was worrying about you again~" Lord Death chimed, throwing a peace sign in their direction and beaming with innocence as he had done at the first meeting.

37 year-old Stein fumbled with his cigarette in shock, he coughed before averting his eyes from his dear wife and mumbling slight incoherent speech. "I was not worried."

"Sure he wasn't," BlackStar mocked the professor, chortling at the bored older agent's expression because he knew on the inside the scientist felt relieved yet embarrassed for fretting as so.

Just like he always did when Tsubaki was expected to come back from a mission sooner.

"Okay, okay," Lord Death quietened everyone down and announced to the FBI team Spartoi, "Yet another breakthrough in our case -50U1Eater- has lead me to calling another meeting. But firstly, let me introduce you to a member who some of you have not met and another new agent to the case."

On cue, two blonde men stepped through the large gold painted double doors.

"Hello everyone!" exclaimed the slightly shorter male in purple checked pants and a white dress shirt. Several rings and jewellery adorned his body in fashionable ways. His appearance is close to that of a bishōnen actually.

Liz noted that 'he could surely become popular if he transferred to a normal job but as an FBI agent, he's too shabby'. His facial features include bright turquoise eyes and mid-length blonde hair.

"Agents, why don't you introduce yourselves to the team?" Lord Death said. His voice just as goofy and bizarre as usual.

"Of course Lord Death. Members of the team, I am Hiro also known as Agent Excalibur and at 28 years of age I have been working as an undercover worker at the International prison since five years ago. I am most grateful to be accepted into your team's case." He emitted a glow that was in other words pride. He mentally pats his back for remembering his rehearsed speech.

"And you Mr Law? Would you like to tell us about yourself?" Lord Death inquired at the second man with a blank face.

Hiro side-glanced at his companion before rolling his eyes and ripping the skull earphones from his ears.

"Wha-!" Bellowed the older male with shock at the loss of his blasting music.

"Justin! Lord Death was talking to you!" Scolded Justin's younger partner in crime.

"Wha-? Really? Oh please excuse my loyal self my Lord of Death. I did not realise you were speaking behind thy mask, without the movement of thy lips I could not read your-,"

"Agent Guillotine, there's no need to be so formal, it's just me and your new team."

"Yes, please excuse me my Lord. Spartoi, My name is Justin Law but as an FBI member I am known as Agent Guillotine or nicknamed the Executioner. I am of 30 years of age and I work as an undercover agent at Death City's Prison as their priest and minister." He finished with a quick bow of his head.

BlackStar snickered to himself causing Tsubaki to turn his way. BlackStar covered his mouth with his hand and continued to tremble silently with laughter.

His girlfriend glanced at her team members to check if they had noticed. Deeming that they hadn't due to them questioning the new members, she spun back around to question him.

"What is it BlackStar?" She asked.

"Pfff," BlackStar took a breath before whispering back (as well as he could) to her, "That Justin guy is wearing a dress!" He erupted into a silent fit of laughter behind his hand again.

Tsubaki sweat dropped. She turned to face her team mates, realising they were still busy with introductions she eyed Justin Law's clothing choice.

Rolling her eyes with a soft smile she turned back around to whisper to her boyfriend. Facing his way she realised he was slouched right under the table to contain his laughter. She bent down to look under the table at him.

"BlackStar, Justin's not wearing a dress; it's a deacon's or priest's robe. It's what ministers like him wear," The passionate 22 year-old tried to explain to the boy who seemed to calm down slightly.

"Yeah yeah," He said grinning while coming up from under the table top. "Everyone knows that those are silly names for dresses," BlackStar remarked, dusting off invisible dust and taking a seat in his chair.

"Okay," Started Lord Death as the room started to quieten down, "You have been informed that we are here to discuss Maka Albarn's condition."

"What do we know?" Spirit sounded concerned at what would be revealed about his daughter who he still hadn't seen since he was told she was actually alive.

"Well," grunted Lord Death, secretly looking at the lately-been-miserable father, "Hiro has sourced something from being with her two days ago. Care to explain?" Lord Death addressed the associate who is known as Agent Excalibur.

Hiro cleared his throat, recalling the events from a couple of days ago.

Soul Eater, who used to be a part of the FBI before he was innocently imprisoned, had intimidated Maka Albarn. She was a newbie who Justin was supposed to show around on her very first shift.

He had no choice but to put up an act and pretend to threaten his ex-teammate as the undercover guard he was. The memory played in his head.

"Ahh!" Maka leapt back towards Hiro and the guard held his teaser up to the prisoner.

The inmate's wide smirk disappeared and was replaced with a frown when he realised that his diner-deliverer was not alone.

"Step back Eater!" Hiro commanded sternly.

Soul still thought that the FBI, his friends and mates didn't believe him when he said he did not kill the 18 victims of the massacre.

'Eater' hesitated to turn away and take two strides back towards his bed before jumping onto it and looking away, not before stealing one last look at the short girl standing behind the young bright-blonde security guard. 

When Hiro had turned around to lead the young girl back to the level 3 staffroom, he noticed something was off about her.

Maka blinked once…

Twice…

Three times.

She looked down at her black apron gently and shook the chills off her body. 

An then she saw it, the trauma of the night of her parents death came back to haunt her.

The illusions were back…

Maka opened her eyes, they were wide and a shining bright Chartreuse. 

Hiro shook the blonde gently, smiling with comfort. Her eye colour had seemed a lot lighter when she turned to him with horror.

She quickly looked down at his left hand, staring at it intensely. He had held the hand up and waved it in her face.

"Maka? You're starting to freak me out, are you okay?"

He had spoken with insecurity despite being a guard. Her eyes seemed to follow his left hand wherever he waved it.

Then, she seemed to look from his hand to the floor in a slow line. She rose her head again followed something he couldn't see to the stair case that lead down stairs. She had looked up at him again.

"Maka?"

"Hiro...I-I'm sorry, this doesn't happen very often, trust me!" she said with worry.

"What do you mean? Zoning out?" He inquired. 

Suddenly he had to think through her answer. 

It processed very slowly in his mind. Lord Death had warned him about this since Marie had noticed that Maka had been looking up books about Japanese legends in her bookstore.

"I-I…I somet-times see red strings attaching other people…"

She had said to him.

"I can see your red string of fate…"

...

"Okay Maka, it's time for our first shift!" Kim said with a grin.

Maka Had arrived two days after for her next shift of work. She was to work three times a week being payed 20 bucks a shift (she does 1-2 shifts a day). This job was the best ever!

Maka was slightly hesitant about her shift this morning though. She had arrived half an hour earlier which was expected by the employed workers.

Maka had met the people she was sharing the staffroom with. To put it simply, they were…interesting.

Apparently Hiro was grouped with her too although he arrived a little late since he had a meeting to attend. He didn't elaborate on that though.

When she had greeted him this morning, he had seemed off. He was a little strange and kept asking her about her personal life. It seemed like he was documenting her or something.

Anyways, Maka suspected that it was because she had told him about her sixth sense.

'He must think I'm weird,' she thought to herself sadly as she followed the rest of her work mates to the pin board to see what shifts they had this morning.

That was what she was afraid of, people looking down on her when she told them her secret…

If they ever found out about the damage from the car crash…

She didn't want people to think she was strange.

She hadn't told anyone about being able to see the red string of fate before Hiro. Maka had told no one and she couldn't believe she told a complete stranger like Hiro, even though she had warned him not to tell anyone.

Maka looked up at the timetable that was changed every shift. It had each worker's age, name and job for the first shift.

LEVEL THREE: SHIFT 1

(23) Ox Ford – Guard: station 4 

(24) Harvar D. Éclair – Guard: station 3

(22) Kim Diehl – The Bay 

(23) Jacqueline O. Lantern Dupré – Security office 2

(30) Justin Law – Guard: station 1

(24) Kilik Rung – Guard: Station 2

(28) Hiro - Security office 1

(21) Maka Albarn – Breakfast

Maka sighed as she put on her apron, bid goodbye to Kim and the rest of them and set out to deliver breakfast to the awaiting inmates of level three.

She was anxious to see the odd red-eyed prisoner again. What was his name? oh right...Hiro had said it was 'Eater'.


	6. Part VI

Everyone was leaving the odd looking Death room that had previously been used for their meeting. They had come to a conclusion that Maka could see the red strings of fate when she feels scared.

They got three plans set straight:

Hiro and Justin, undercover agents who were supposed to be Maka's work mates, were to get as much information about seeing the Red Strings as they can without being suspicious.

Tsubaki, BlackStar, Kidd, Liz and Patty were to pry on her memory and injuries from the night she thought she was in a car crash but instead had been a witness of the Massacre that claimed her mother's life.

And 3. Being the mother-like figure in Maka's life, Marie was wanted to slowly and gently as possible talk to Maka about her mother and to, easily as possible without corrupting the girl, ask Maka if she knew about the Black Blood.

The plan was to be set into action as soon as possible because the longer the Black Blood is hidden, the longer Soul is imprisoned and the world is at risk because of a hidden substance with so much potential.

"Wait, can I have just a moment with you two please!" Lord Death called just as the group were about to step out of the door. "Stein and Marie," He elaborated.

The couple glanced at each other quickly and walked over to their boss together.

The rest of the team excused themselves and hid their curiousness at the private talk.

"Stein, how is your research on the Black Blood going?" Lord Death asked the scientist as he gestured for them to take a seat at the unnecessarily large table.

"Fine I guess," The doctor answered raising his eyebrow at the elder man, "Is something wrong Lord Death?"

"No, not at all," Lord Death directed his attention to the 6 month pregnant mother who shifted in her seat. "Actually, I wanted to talk you about the baby."

Marie perked up slightly, "the baby?"

"Yes, I wanted to make sure you were feeling okay is all," he said, presumably smiling behind his shadowing mask.

"Oh! That's kind of you but I'm really okay," she answered.

Stein sat there, eyeing Marie's growing stomach from time-to-time. He wasn't prepared when she had told him he was to be a father. But she was more than prepared to be a mother.

For the first time in a while, he was a little afraid.

What if his son didn't like him?

What if he turned out to be a horrible father?

Stein had never been quite the tender loving fatherly man. He wanted to raise his child properly. Secretly, despite his unaffectionate personality, he wanted to be there and support his family as a father should.

"That's good, I just wanted to make sure and tell you that whenever you think it is best to take a maternity leave, feel free to ask and don't rush yourself by putting being on time for meetings a priority over your wellbeing." Lord Death remarked.

"Thank you sir," Marie bowed slightly and looked at him scincerly.

"Oh and one more thing, Stein, I understand smoking is an addictive habit of yours but I suggest you see someone or call a quit line. Being a good role model for your child is one of the most important things that will influence his future." The shinigami lecture his friend seriously.

There was a pause as stein thought this over.

The father-to-be looked back up to the man and held his wife's hand underneath the table causing her to grin.

"Actually, I'll take that advice," He said, "considering you raised a son yourself and such a gentleman he turned out to be. He'll make a fine leader one day you know? I wonder what it would be like to dissect him…"

"STEIN!" Maire scolded her partner.

Lord Death chuckled slightly, "Well, you two are excused," he said and dismissed the odd comment about his son.

As the couple exited the Death Room, Stein pulled out a cigarette.

Marie shot him a look as he lit it. "Stein? Were you listening to a thing Lord Death told you?"

He sighed, "Old habits die hard Marie."

Maire rolled her eyes, "You better call that quit line later dear or I'll be onto you," she said as she stuck her hand out expectantly.

Stein groaned as he pulled the packet of Tabaco from his pocket and placed it into her awaiting hands.

"That's a start," She smiled, pecking his cheek and half walking half prancing away from him to talk to Azusa at the reception.

Stein couldn't suppress his grin as he watched he depart from him, "Oh Marie…"

Soul sat on his bed staring up at the barred and tinted window above his head. He had a plan and wasn't going to let freedom escape for the fourth time in his life at the prison.

Why couldn't people just believe him when he said:

HE. DID. NOT. DO. IT!

Rolling his eyes he ran a hand through his hair and looked at the door.

His plan was to fake a terrible injury and call for her to come in and help him get up from bed. Then, when she got close, he'd push her away and run out the door before closing it and locking her in.

As for the security cameras…, it was Friday so that would mean Hiro would be at the security station that guarded Soul. Hiro never really payed attention to the screens anyway, he guessed.

The alarms that would go off as well…., he pondered this before deciding he'd just run for it.

Workers who weren't guards weren't supposed to open the second security cage door for their own safety but the newbies were always the foolish ones.

He smirked deviously and repeated the words over in his head.

'Fourth time lucky, fourth time lucky, fourth time lucky, four time lucky…'

If he failed again it would be so…uncool.

Maka strolled down the hallway after scanning the security doors open. She surprisingly wasn't as tired as she thought she would be at the second last person to be of service to.

"Breakfast!" She called more confidently than last time. She pulled open the chunky cell door and peered in to see the approaching dark tan man, just like he looked the last time she saw him two days ago only this time he didn't have cornrows.

With the top half of his full lengthen jumpsuit unbuttoned with the sleeves tied around his waist, she spotted his tattoo that ran like snakes down his arm.

"Mmmm," He hummed happily just like he did previously, "I'm so hungry!"

This made Maka grin. There were occasionally the inmates who actually seemed really friendly to her. She looked at her clip-board and scanned down it until she got to a box next to a name that was not ticked yet. She read the name before looking up.

"You must be Noah?" She smiled up at him.

"Yep! And you're the new worker Miss Albarn right, I've heard a great deal about you every lunch with the guys," he answered.

Maka didn't know if that was a good thing or not so she smiled while she pushed his tray through the slot and slide it shut again.

"I'll see you later when I collect the trays," she told him and he nodded, grabbing his breakfast before she locked the cell door back up.

Working here wasn't as bad as she thought. She'd have to thank Tsubaki again for getting her the job.

Okay, she stopped to tick Noah off the list and proceeded to scan her card, opening the next hallways door.

This was the last cell.

She stopped at the locked door and took a breath.

'What if he's trying to scare me again?' she thought uneasily.

She remembered what happened the last time she opened the door to his room.

"Din…ner…" the last syllable was trailed off slowly as she opened the door and mistakenly slid the food window open to reveal something she did not expect.

She was very intimidated.

The criminal had gone ahead and leaned on the cage door, smirking at her intensely. Maka jumped back slightly. His blood-red eyes bored into her emerald. His smirk of sharp teeth was frightening and white-blonde hair shadowed his head.

"Ahh!" Maka leapt back towards Hiro and the guard held his teaser up to the prisoner.

Pushing the though away, Maka took one last deep breath as she unlocked the entrance with her card.

"Breakfast…?" She sounded unsure, all the confidence she built when visiting all the smiling (even the expressionless) faces of the previous inmates disappeared, like simply cutting a loose thread off a faulty woollen jumper.

She waited for a reply, and it came loud and clear.

"Ahhh!...ouch!" He continued to groan in pain.

There, on the squeaky fold-out bed was a writhing figure.

The window above him glistened over his body. The top-half of his bright orange uniform was undone much like Noah's. His chest glistened with a thin layer of sweat as he screamed and messed with the sheets.

"…W…What the hell!" She exclaimed in panic.

"Help!" He begged, "My foot is caught on the side of the bed, I can't get up," His voice was urgent and husky like he hadn't spoken in a while.

"Um…," Maka was hesitant and looked to the automatic hallway door to see if a guard was there. There wasn't.

Something about the situation wasn't right. Was she even allowed into a prisoner's cell?

"Please! Help me!" She screamed in pain and trembled a little more. How could she possibly turn him down like that?

Maka steadied her breath as a usual headache started to pound in her brain.

Pulling her security card out she scanned her card into the slot that opened the second security cage door, she left the card in the slot just in case it was a trap.

He continued in his trauma as she approached warily.

She stood by his foot in seconds, "Where does it hurt?" She looked up to his face and frowned, "What? Your foot isn't even caught…," she stated and trailed off as he stopped wiggling and smirked at her with those sharp teeth.

Her eyes widened with realisation.

'It was a TRAP!'

Before the confused girl could react, Eater jumped up and pushed her onto the bed before dashing for the door.

But suddenly, the door swung shut with a bam!

"The fuck!" He screeched as he slammed his fists against the screen door. Silenced sliced through the sir for a moment.

'Why didn't the sirens go off?' he thought to himself in dismay. His eyes perked up at the sound of shuffling.

Eater turned around to be faced with a fuming woman.

"WHAT WAS THAT!" She screeched causing him to cringe, "SHIT! My card is still in the slot! I thought the door wouldn't close if it was still scanned in!" She panicked.

He frowned, "So that is why the siren's didn't go off, the card is still scanned in," he cursed.

She turned to glare at him, "What was that? Is this what you wanted Eater!?" She spat his name.

He directed his attention to her; menacing blood eyes intimidated her own.

"Oof!" The air rushed out of her as he pushed her onto the bed in half a second flat and got on top of her to sit on the petit girl.

He gripped her neck, cutting off her circulation slightly.

He bent down, his face inches from hers intimidatingly.

He pulled up her skirt up to her waist from underneath her apron and gripped her thigh, feeling higher…and higher up…


	7. Part VII

Part VII

"Can't we just say 'Hey Maka, you know that thing about your parents being in a car crash? Well everyone you know has been lying to you, your mum was killed in the massacre instead and your dad is working with us to spy on your every move. Oh, and did we mention that we aren't actually your friends, we're undercover FBI agents!' It would waste less time if we just told her everything right my minions!?"

BlackStar, Tsubaki, Kidd, Liz and Patty were gathered together in Liz and Patty's dorm room. They were currently discussing the best approaches at completing their mission: pry on Maka's memory and injuries from the night she thought she was in a car crash.

The group sweat dropped in utter disbelief.

What the hell have they let their friend smoke?

"B-BlackStar? I really don't think that's a good idea," Sighed Tsubaki, weakly smiling at her oblivious boyfriend.

"Yeah, I agree. And I mean who the hell who be so blunt? Besides, we aren't her fake undercover friends. Maka is really nice and we're still her friends, being a part of the FBI doesn't change that," Liz explained to the frowning Agent Star.

"I don't see why not!" BlackStar returned to lying down on Patty's bed and tossing his basketball into the air, only to catch it when it descends. "It is the truth."

"Well BlackStar, Sometimes the truth hurts," Kidd rolled his eyes at BlackStar.

"No it can't," Laughed BlackStar while throwing his ball at his symmetrical friend, "How can it hurt, it's only words. Besides, It's only her mum that's dead, she should be thankful it wasn't her or her father."

His friends were silent while Tsubaki turned to him to shoot him a look of Horror. "BlackStar! Don't say things like that!" She threw the closest pillow at him which he caught and sat up.

"Just ignore him Tsubaki. BlackStar just doesn't have that filter in his head called a brain that tells him to not say rude things," Liz rolled her eyes at the blue-haired male and proceeded to blow on her Lilac coloured toe nails, drying second coat of nail polish off faster.

"Well we've been sitting here for over an hour and I just thought I'd share what I thought, geez. It's not like anyone has any better idea," BlackStar glared at his side-tracked friends.

"Oh? We're sharing ideas now?" Patty mused.

The others gave her an 'are-you-fucking-serious' look and she took it as a yes.

"We are? Okay than, I have an idea!" she beamed, despite being twenty she was just as bubbly as a five-year-old-girl. "Why don't we get Maka drunk and then get her to spill the beans about everything, that way we can do Mrs Marie a favour and find out about the Black Blood too!" Patty chirped with pride.

At that moment with stress, frustration, headaches, annoyance and fatigue running through each and everybody's system, Patty's idea seemed like the best thing they had ever heard.

Kidd shrugged with impressiveness towards the otherwise dumb blonde. "Everyone in favour of following Patty's plan say 'aye'," Kidd said raising his hand and looking around.

They all held their hands up besides Patty who has gotten back to colouring-in her giraffe.

"It's settled then, we will get Maka drunk when we invite her over tomorrow," Liz sighed. "Now I really need to get some rest from thinking."

The group agreed and head off to their own dorms to take a nap or just relax after the long mini-meeting and a hard day's training.

...~redstringsoffate~...

They both had accidentally just realised that they had locked themselves in with each other.

She turned to glare at him, "What was that? Is this what you wanted Eater!?" Maka spat his name.

He directed his attention to her; menacing blood eyes intimidated her own.

"Oof!" The air rushed out of her as he pushed her onto the bed in half a second flat and got on top of her to sit on the petit girl.

He gripped her neck, cutting off her circulation slightly.

He bent down, his face inches from hers intimidatingly.

He pulled up her skirt up to her waist from underneath her apron and gripped her thigh, feeling higher…and higher up…

Maka's eyes welled up with threatening tears so she closed her eyes as she tried to ignore his wondering fingers.

"R-RAPE-," She was silenced by his clamped had.

His hand travelled a little bit higher until he reached his destination.

Riiipppp!

The odd ripping sound caused her wide sea green eyes to fly open and search for his face which was not difficult as it was right in front of her own.

He leant back slightly with his left hand still on her mouth to keep her from screaming. His other hand came up to show her what he had torn.

'Oh…' she though with embarrassment.

Here she was, accusing him of attempted rape when he had only ripped the Velcro strapped-on Taser-gun that was supposed to be used when workers got into bad situations.

Bad Situations such as this…

Why didn't she think of that before he did? She mentally slapped herself.

He jumped off her after assuring himself that she wasn't going to scream again.

Soul held the gun up facing her as he backed towards the door.

"Don't move or I'll tase you," he warned before trying to tug the door open. Realising the wind had locked it tightly he tried to reach his hand through the tray slot which was left open from the attack and he tried to reach for the card that sat patiently in the scanner.

"Fuck," he cursed directing his attention back to the awaiting girl sitting on his bed.

"Looks like you're stuck here until I figure out a way to get you out," He shrugged, pleased that the sirens didn't go off but slightly deflated at the fact she was stuck in his cell and probably stuffed up the scanning system with her card stuck it the slot. It was kinda' designed to be a scan and open kind of thing.

'What a stupid girl,' he thought to himself as he grabbed the breakfast that was still sitting on the wall table unattended.

Smirking he started to dig into his food, seated at the cell toilet that he had closed the lid of.

Maka was not happy.

"Excuse me?" she frowned, walking up to stand in front of him. "I have to wait until you figure out something? I'm sorry but I have better things to do. Can't you just-,"

"Shut up broad," He scowled, ignoring Maka and continuing on with his meal.

"What? You-what? Did you just - BROAD?!" She shrieked, any anger she had tried to contain before rose up again. "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU CALLING A BROAD? YOU ARE THE MOST SEXIST-"

Maka was interrupted once again.

BUURRRRRPPP!

He smirked up at her smugly.

'Did he just…?' Maka frowned and reach for her hard-cover-just-incase-4 inch-oxford dictionary, 'No one Burps in her face and gets away with it.'

"THAT IS IT EATER!" screeching like a banshee, she brought the heaving book straight down aiming directly at his cranium skull with the full intent to engrave a permanent crater.

Being a part of the FBI for the past 2 and a half years Soul picked a little something up in the defence department and reacted with reflexes as fast as lightning.

As Maka's book came slamming down with perfect aim he leant his upper body back onto the wall behind him only to expose his lower body in his sitting position on the toilet.

The moment seemed to go in slow motion.

Unfortunately his head was previously in line with his 'Kiwis' causing something a boy should never have to go through, moving back in an attempt to doge a book to the skull and only to have a book to the balls.

...~redstringsoffate~...

"Has anyone seen Maka?" said Jacquie.

At the level three staff-room, Kim and Jacquie had come back from their shifts late, only to realize that Maka wasn't present even there even though they arrived quite a while after shift 1 had ended.

The group; Ox Ford, Harvar D. Éclair, Kim Diehl, Jacqueline O. Lantern Dupré, Justin Law, Kilik Rung and Hiro all looked up with surprise at the two late girls.

Hiro and Justin exchanged masked looks between each other. They should have noticed her absence; after all, they were to question her in their free time.

Kim and Jacquie looked shocked that they hadn't even realised she wasn't present.

"She should have been back ten minutes ago, guys!" Kim sighed. "Let's check her scan and see where she scanned in last." Kim walked over to the computer that sat near the kitchen bench.

Logging on, she searches 'Maka Albarn' into the staff search engine.

The group had come over to the table with Kim, looking over her shoulders to see if they were any help.

After the 'loading' bar filled up to 100%, a window popped up entitled, 'Maka Albarn (21)'. Her profile picture had also come up, a photo of her in her DWMA university crested shirt.

Information that was useless to them about her came up alongside the picture too. Kim scrolled through the pages, searching for the section with the heading 'Security Card'.

Name…

Age…

Birth Date…

Birth Certificate…

Employment…

Previous careers…

Shifts…

Stations and Staffrooms…

Security Card…

Their eyes perked up at the sight of the subheading of their destination.

Kim clicked on it once.

After about five seconds the group began to grow impatient at the reactionless click.

"Here," said Kilik stepping forward from behind Harvar, taking the computer mouse out of Kim's hands. "This is will make it go faster," he stated before furiously clicking the mouse again and again until the only sound that filled the room for about another five seconds was the constant clicking of the mouse.

Ox raised his eyebrow at Kilik's concentrated expression. "Kilik, I really don't believe that repetitively pressing on Maka's Security card File would get it to open faster."

"Of course it will," 24 year-old Kilik answered.

Justin rolled his eyes. "Here, allow me," he said professionally after pushing Kilik back from the mouse to hold it himself and double-click on the file.

The file immediately opened up at the simple double click of the mouse. Justin smiled smugly, placing his earphones back into his ears.

"And that is how you use a computer mouse," Justin spoke matter-of-factly.

Jacquie's voice directed the attention back to the screen.

"Look," she exclaimed, "Maka's last scan was in room 5021 which is the last room of her shift. She's probably just taking a while; after all, she is still new to it."

The group nodded, more assured now.

"Wait," interjected Hiro, "Two days ago, on Maka's first time, I went with her. At room 5021 'Eater' tried to attack her." The assurance from a second ago was wiped clean.

"Check what time her scan at room 5021 was," Harvar spoke bluntly from the back of the huddle.

"Good idea," Kim said, double clicking on Maka's scan at the room in question.

Another mini window came up: Maka Albarn, room 5021, 10:50am Friday May 13th.

"10:50? WHAT?! That was twenty minutes ago!" exclaimed Hiro, "I'm going to go check on her."

"We're coming with you!"

With that, the group grabbed their Key Cards and abandoned the staffroom, missing the beep signalling a text message from Maka's phone.

"Ugghh…" It had been roughly twenty minutes of loneliness in Soul Eater's cell before Soul started to stir. He was conscious the whole time just silently recovering from the throbbing pain in his lower-horn after having a book bashed onto it.

The scene had been a horror.

"S-sorry," Maka apologized sheepishly, "I promise you I didn't aim for your…your…anyways, if you didn't move then I wouldn't have missed," she stated naively.

Soul turned to glare at the girl and noticed her lack of chest. "The FUCK you Bitch! You crush my balls and tell me it was my fault!"

"Well you shouldn't have move-,"

"Look here Tiny-tits," He spat coming up to her, choking her against the bed, "Just because you're a pretty face, doesn't mean I won't hesitate to kill you if you ever so much as-," This time it was Soul's turn to be interrupted as the cell doors were flung open.

The entrance was clear revealing four guards, Kilik, Hiro, Ox and Harvar. The men's eyes fell on the scene that could have easily been misinterpreted and immediately swung into action.

They attacked Soul ripping him off Maka.

The scene before her emerald eyes was almost enough to Maka her believe that slavery was really not abolished.

The men pinned him on the cold cement floor of the cell ground as Kim, Jacquie and Justin appeared in the doorway, watching with wide-eyes.

They were beating the prisoner, Hiro was holding back though. Soul fought back either way and tried to land a few hits although he was easily outnumbered. They tased him because he just refused to cooperate until blood trickled down the side of his mouth and the guards dragged him out to the cell with handcuffs, forcing him to stand which had become such a hard task for his abused body.

It seemed to play faster in her mind.

Maka could only stare as a slight blood trail was left in Eater's tracks and the illusions danced across her mind.

The Red Strings were back...again...


	8. Part VIII

-"Look here Tiny-tits," He spat coming up to her, choking her against the bed, "Just because you're a pretty face, doesn't mean I won't hesitate to kill you if you ever so much as-," This time it was Soul's turn to be interrupted as the cell doors were flung open.

The entrance was clear revealing four guards, Kilik, Hiro, Ox and Harvar. The men's eyes fell on the scene that could have easily been misinterpreted and immediately swung into action.

They attacked Soul ripping him off Maka.

The scene before her emerald eyes was almost enough to Maka her believe that slavery was really not abolished.

The men pinned him on the cold cement floor of the cell ground as Kim, Jacquie and Justin appeared in the doorway, watching with wide-eyes.

They were beating the prisoner, Hiro was holding back though. Soul fought back either way and tried to land a few hits although he was easily outnumbered. They tased him because he just refused to cooperate until blood trickled down the side of his mouth and the guards dragged him out to the cell with handcuffs, forcing him to stand which had suddenly become such a hard task for his abused body.

It seemed to play faster in her mind.

Maka could only stare as a slight blood trail was left in Eater's tracks and the illusions danced across her mind.

The Red Strings were back. –

"Ngahh!" she huffed a short scream as she sat up panting in her bed. Maka scanned the room with widened jade eyes, her gaze calming down as it landed on the sheen of sweat covering her peachy skin. "A dream again…?" Maka whispered to herself as she raised her hands to rub excess sleep from her closed eyes.

Suddenly feeling a large amount of heat weighing on herself she got up to take as cold shower.

Those dreams…, Maka's eyes befitted half-lidded emerald gems as she scrubbed the memories from last week away from her body.

Ever since last Friday when she had been locked in Evans' cell, she had nightmares replaying the thoughts of being choked, threatened and almost killed before her work mates had come to her rescue.

Sighing, her thoughts wondered back to his pinky,

Evans' left pinky.

In its place was no fate…

no string….

he had no red string of fate.

Yes, when scared or threatened her sixth sense would come back to her. Maka Albarn could see the red strings of fate, ever since that 'car accident' two months ago.

When Evans had pinned her to the bed, when he had deliberately tried to end her life by cutting off her oxygen supply, she saw the red strings of fate. Her vision would blur into a black and white world and the red strings would be glowing, connecting person to person, everyone had one…except Evans.

Slamming the cold water off Maka stepped out of the shower, leaving a dripping trail of water into her bedroom again where she put on comfortable home clothes and dried her hair into loose damp sandy blonde strings.

Strings.

When she had looked to his left hand, there was no red string of fate. What did this mean?

This thought had bugged Maka till the point that she spent most, if not all, of her free time researching more on her curious case of sighting invisible love threads.

Still, no explanation as to why someone didn't have a red string popped up in her study. The legend always went, 'Every person has a soul mate that they may or may not ever meet in which they are connected with a red string of fate'.

She even came across a tediously long book at Mrs Marie's Book Store, Deaths Super Series, called 'Legend of the Red Strings of Fate – Written by Dr Franken Stein'. It was faulty in her eyes. It went on about how only reapers could see them and dead 'Grigori' souls, whatever that was and all that jazz that everyone knew wasn't true.

Although this was a fact, Maka had found it hard to put the book down after starting it since it was written by one of her most favourite authors who wrote on the study of law. She had never actually seen the man of course. Even being a selling author he had no pictures on the internet no matter how far and wide she decided to track him or even stalk him.

"Eeep!" Maka squeaked, tumbling over onto the tile kitchen floor. She had always been a clumsy girl. Although, something gave her the feeling that she wouldn't be half as clumsy if her parents hadn't given her that book. It was like a magnet, slowly moving to cling onto her fridge or any magnetic items closest to it. She stood up to dust herself off before glaring at the book's cover that was made of cardboard and definitely not magnetic.

It was a 4 inch, very thick and hardcover book on 'The strange myths of time' as it was titled. It was a customized version that her parents had made themselves and presented her with before announcing their divorce.

Written by Spirit and Kami Albarn.

Maka's eyes softened as she turned away, she checked her phone at the kitchen counter. The thought of a person not having a thread of destiny leaving her mind as she read a new message from Tsubaki, her best friend.

\- Remember, u r comin over 2nite w/ the others ^^ -

If Maka didn't know better, she would have thought it was a message from a paedophile. She laughed breezily to herself.

'Sure thing', Maka texted back before closing her slide phone and burying her face in her crossed arms. The past week had drained her to dry noodles. She was so flipping tired! Sleep sounded like heaven until she remembered it would do her no good seeing that she would only be seeing Evans for the eighth time this week.

She had no idea what punishments were being enforced on him but he hadn't been allowed back to his cell for the past eight days. It cut off some work for her but she couldn't help but think about him day and night.

Thinking of work, Maka couldn't help smile at how she had settled right into her career, like a boss!

She was able to finish both the delivery of food and collecting of trays for the whole of level three in under an hour and had even been allowed by Mister Mosquito himself to escort inmates to the shower room and back or to the cafeteria/free time and back without falling behind and getting attacked either.

Maybe things weren't so bad.

School started again after this weekend and Maka was pumped. Maybe she would be able to pass law this semester and with flying colours too.

Before their last year of college, Maka, Tsubaki, BlackStar, Kidd, Liz and Patty were planning on gathering at Tsubaki's place to spend some time together before study could interfere with their social life again. That was what the text message was all about.

...-redstringsoffate-...

"There are plenty of History books in this section over here," Marie told a young high school boy as she directed him to the left of the library. "I'm sure you'll find a book on the Dark Ages over there," she assured him.

"Thank you Mam," he thanked her and smiled before browsing through the filled pages of literature.

Marie walked back to the front desk of the olden styled library, watching her husband help a middle aged woman walk out of the store before retreating to his wife.

"How'd it go?" She questioned him as he pulled a chair up and took a sip of his coffee.

"Argh…I'm so tired, how do you do this all week?" He raised his brow at his pregnant partner. Marie giggled, sipping her tea. Smiling at the fact her husband had put down his study of the black blood to come with her to the library since she was well on her way to giving birth and no employees came on Saturdays.

Before the hearing of Marie's answer, the front door made a noise signalling the arrival of a new customer.

Ding

Ding

The couple looked up to be met with an ashy blonde haired young woman. Marie perked up with the sight of one of her regulars.

Marie quickly whispered into Stein's ear before getting up to greet her regular. "This is the Maka Albarn," she half-sang-half-yelled-half-said.

Stein suddenly sat up straighter in his seat, observing the girl who was strolling closer to the desk. He kept staring at her as she smiled to him, greeting him, before turning to Marie who she hugged.

"Oh Maka! You're back again this week, how is work at the prison?" Marie asked, pulling away from the hug.

Maka's beaming face suddenly became a confused and questioning one.

"Prison? How did you know I was working at the prison? I haven't told you yet," Maka inquired, dropping her arms from around the woman's shoulders.

The corner of Stein's mouth tugged into a small grin, 'she's a clever one,' he thought to himself.

Marie's face flushed with heat causing her to turn around and pretend to fix some books to hide her face away from the others. "W-well…um…," a good thought suddenly came to her, "Tsubaki told me so."

"Oh! Okay, it's going well I suppose," Maka smiled, ignoring the uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach before continuing on what she came here for.

Stein only watched the scene play out between the two women silently sipping his strong drink.

"So I was wondering if I could borrow a book, it's almost five o'clock and I know you close in half an hour but I'm desperate to finish reading it, it's written by one of my most favourite authors who write about law. He's absolutely amazing!" Maka exclaimed to Marie who was giggling at her admiration towards this author.

"Of course dear, do you remember the book and author?" Marie answered and asked.

"Um," Maka scratched her neck in thought, "It's called Legend of the Red Strings of Fate and written by Dr Franken Stein," Maka chirped, "I can't wait to finish it!"

Both Marie and Stein shot each other mirrored surprised and knowing looks.

"You're interested in the Red Strings of Fate?" Stein inquired standing up to address her.

"Um," Maka blushed as Marie went off to find the book, not before giving Stein a pat on the shoulder as they both had found an unexpected fan of his writing. "Yea, I'm into that kind of stuff. Have you heard of Dr Frankenstein, the author?" Maka asked the man who had finally acknowledged her.

Stein grinned, "Why yes I have."

"Oh that's great!" Maka handed Marie her library card with a thank-you when she came back with the book and she turned back to the man in front of her. "Are you a fan?"

"I guess you could say that," He smiled at the young girl in front of him and couldn't help wonder if maybe his son would be just as smart, lovely and book-loving like this young lady in front of him.

'She's a clever one, Kami would be so proud,' he thought.

...-redstringsoffate-...

"A-hahahahahaha!" Maka laughed obnoxiously and louder than anyone else in the room at one of BlackStar's lame jokes.

When she had arrived at the party, the others were already there. Tsubaki had made it clear that it was a Saturday get together party with all of the gang over and failed to mention that there was going to be alcohol present.

Walking into the living room to see the several bottles of vodka on the coffee table Maka was tempted to run straight out the door before BlackStar and Patty both hooked their arms around her shoulders and led her in.

Now she was trapped here and the longer she stayed, the more she drank and the more she drank, the more she let go and started to feel light in the head.

Tsubaki took another fake drink of her vodka, just like she and the other undercover FBI agents had been doing for the past hour. They were trying to go through with their plan to get Maka drunk and spill the beans on everything she knows.

"SO!" Liz yelled in a fake drunken manor, "Maka, what can you tell us about the night of March third three months back?" Asked Liz, glancing at her friends to see if it was time to finally go through with what they were really here for.

The group gave the elder Thompson unneeded answers as it was clear that Maka was evidently lost in drinking and wasn't going to remember this when she woke up the next day with an unavoidable hangover.

"Huh? What'da ya talkin 'bout?" Maka slurred as a wickedly wide smile stretched across her face, "Can I have s'more of vat?" she asked Kidd who held the second bottle of Vodka in his hands, his face scrunched in distaste.

After he poured her another shot the others continued to pry on what she knows while her mind was vulnerable and open.

"Well, Maka, your…your parents…," Tsubaki spoke gently, despite it being a mission she still cared for Maka who had been through enough, "They passed away on that day."

Maka started to laugh hysterically, high on alcohol as the group, Tsubaki especially, cringed at the unintended disrespect for her most loved ones.

"Ugh!" BlackStar rubbed his face, having enough of beating around an invisible bush. "Maka, tell us what you know of the god damn Black Blood!" he stated bluntly.

"BlackStar!" Tsubaki scolded through clenched teeth.

"Black Blood? Pft! Ya must be kiddin' t'eres no such thin'!" Maka answered as smooth as a cat on ice.

The agents sighed, including Patty who would have been expected to giggle at Maka's condition.

"This, is going to be a long night," mumbled Kidd, putting the bottle down and burying his face in his arms, listening to BlackStar lose his temper and interrogate the wits out of a drunk Maka Albarn.


	9. Part IX

Maka woke up with a disturbing hangover this morning which left her in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

"Hey Maka, you don't look okay…" Liz said, raising an eyebrow.

"Thanks," Maka frowned in response, "I feel like barfing after every step I take, and why are you so sober? If I am not mistaken all of you were at the party last night. Drinking…" this time Maka was also addressing the rest of her friends, clutching her pounding head in her hands as they trailed behind her toward English class.

They all sweat dropped, "umm, because we took some aspirin…?" stuttered Tsubaki nervously, making up the lie on the spot.

"Yea, lots of it," Kidd back her up, nodding quickly.

"Yea, five kilos of it!" exclaimed Patty, over exaggerating.

The group's eye's widened, especially Maka's. She rolled her eyes; something was fishy about this, "Five kilos?"

"Patty was just joking…we took at least 10 kilos!" yelled BlackStar proudly.

Tsubaki, Liz and Kidd all slapped their foreheads at how dumb their bluenette friend was.

"Ughhh!" Maka groaned in pain as her head throbbed even more, "Whatever BlackStar I can't deal with you now, let's just get to first period on time!" Maka sighed.

Everyone released a breath they didn't know they were holding as they were glad that the topic was dropped.

Last night, they had managed to get absolutely nothing out of Maka but giggles and hic-ups. Two bottles and a half, Maka had been drugged with two bottles and a half of vodka, and still she wouldn't give them any information.

This led them to the conclusion that she had either been telling the truth (that she doesn't know the BlackBlood exists) or that the BlackBlood had been one of the things that she could not recall due to her slight amnesia from the 'car accident'.

This was something they had to report to Lord Death and the Spartoi FBI team members tonight at the meeting.

LEVEL THREE: SHIFT 3

(23) Ox Ford – Guard: station 2

(24) Harvar D. Éclair – Guard: station 3

(22) Kim Diehl – Security office 1

(23) Jacqueline O. Lantern Dupré – The Bay

(30) Justin Law – Guard: station 1

(24) Kilik Rung – Guard: Station 4

(28) Hiro - Security office 2

(21) Maka Albarn – Food & tray

Maka scanned the notice board at the Federal Death City Prison for what she was asked to do today when arriving at work after school. Maka had had free periods after her third class so she had decided to come and work at the prison through lunch and for the rest of the day. This meant that she had arrived in time for the third shift of the day, lunch delivery.

Despite waking up with a massive hangover that disturbed her up until her Law class (Thank God!), Maka was pumped to start her shift today as she was anxious to know if he had come back from his punishments. After her last encounter with him, Maka just couldn't get him out of her mind.

She was thinking of him day and night.

She was thinking of him at school and at home.

She was thinking of him when she was busy studying and when she had free time.

She was thinking of him, the one with no Red String of Fate.

Maka quickly bid her co-workers goodbye as everyone parted ways to their jobs. She quickly tied on her apron and pinned on her name badge before heading off with her food trolley and security card.

After stopping by The Bay to pick up more food trays from Jackie for the fourth time, Maka dashed off to the second last cell.

She was almost done for this shift.

Knock,

Knock,

Knock,

Maka rapped on the door before scanning it open as usual, "Lunch!" she called.

After the metal door slid open to reveal the cage door, Maka smiled. With his corn-rows and all, Noah stood there like always, greeting her hungrily.

"Mm mmm, smells good, I'm starving!" he said enthusiastically. Maka and Noah had grown closer throughout the week, as friends of course. Recently, Maka had been promoted to being allowed to escort the prisoners towards the dining room, showers and even the courts.

Maka had been assigned cell 5020 and 5021. Since Evans had been absent for the whole week, Maka had only needed to deal with one inmate, Noah. Unexpectedly, she had watched as he talked with other mates while they ate together and awkwardly monitored him briefly when it came to shower time. That was her duty as a guard/escort.

Noah seemed like a great guy to her and he always knew what to say when things got awkward. Ever since Maka's last encounter with Evans, Maka had not been able to see the red strings of fate again yet she hoped she could sometimes when she was with Noah, she wanted to know who his soul mate was.

Something deeper than the guard and prisoner relationship ran between Noah and herself and something in her wanted him to find his one and only.

"Here you go!" she chirped as she slid his lunch into the cell. He raised his eyebrows, like many of the previous inmates had. At lunch, the inmates were supposed to be escorted by their assigned staff members to the dining room to eat there but today, since the warden was not present, all inmates were ordered to not be let out for lunch or free time or for the showers. "Yeah, about that," Maka said sadly, "today's lunch is to be spent in the cell."

Noah nodded understandingly, unlike many of the previous inmates who would complain and sook like children.

"That's okay I suppose, lunch is still lunch!" He shrugged as he dug into his food before the cell door was scanned closed.

Maka smiled as she headed off with the last tray of food. She wondered to herself if she would actually need it today as it had remained useless for the past week because Evans had not returned yet.

Scanning her card for what felt like the thousandth time that day, Maka knocked on the door.

"Lunch…" She called, expecting the complete silence that followed.

She sighed not expecting anyone to be there but knew she should check anyway. This was a letdown once again; Maka was hoping to see him. After all, thoughts of him would not leave her mind.

Surprisingly, the door slid open to reveal a figure on the bed behind the cage door. Her eyes widened in glee.

"Soul!" she beamed and didn't care what he thought when he saw her so happy.

But as he looked up, her smile fell like a heavy sack of lead…

She stared at him, lost for words as he looked back deeply into her eyes with sorrow.

There were bruises and bumps all over his face and neck. Specking his skin purple, blue, red and every other colour in between.

His chest displayed a deep cut from what appeared to be a blade. It was roughly stitched together by what Maka guessed was the work of the prison infirmary. Whip marks adorned his shoulders and back and he was a bloody and abused mess.

She cringed and looked away. They had stripped him of the thick orange jumpsuit leaving him only in thin cotton plants causing him to shiver dramatically. They had left him to die in the freezing cold cell.

So this was the punishment for the events that unfolded after she broke the rule that is to never enter an inmate's cell.

"EVEYBODY SHUT UP!" yelled Lord Death, completely out of character which made the whole room of chatting agents stop abruptly. He cleared his throat after calming down before speaking again. "Sorry everyone, I asked five times for the room to calm down for the meeting to commence but nobody was listening."

"Sorry Lord Death."

"Please excuse us."

"We apologize." The room erupted with the apologies of the Spartoi agents; Marie, Stein, BlackStar, Tsubaki, Kidd, Liz, Patty, Spirit, Hiro and Justin.

"That's ok everyone, I just ask that we all settle down to start our investigation again. So how about- wait, where is Marie?" Lord Death questioned, raising an eyebrow that was not visible behind his skull mask.

"Oh, she must be late again," shrugged Azusa, impatient to start discussing.

"No," Stein said with closed eyes and a relaxed expression, "Actually, she is at home. Sorry for not informing you beforehand Lord Death but Marie and I decided that she should take a maternity leave as the baby started to kick wildly this morning. She still wishes to help though whenever Maka comes to visit and such but she is unable to attend meetings and run the bookstore for the mean time."

Lord Death smiled in response, "Of course that's fine!" He chirped, waving his large gloved hand in dismissal, "It's good that she's taking a break."

"Hold on a sec, do my eyes deceive me?" Sid said with sarcasm, "The Dr Franken Stein not smoking!"

The whole team's eyes widen in surprise and smiles. Stein's pale grey skin flushed with embarrassment. "I-I just didn't feel like it today!" He stuttered.

"Yea right!" BlackStar mocked, "I bet Marie told you to stop! Awww, what a good little puppy!" BlackStar teased with a sing-song voice.

Irritated and embarrassed, Stein got up from his rollie-chair to grab at BlackStar who was laughing his head off at his own joke. "WHY YOU LITTLE BRAT, I'LL DISSECT-"

"Order in the meeting room!" boomed Azusa's threatening voice, "Congratulations Stein and SHUT UP BlackStar! Now can we please move on with the meeting?"

Everyone straightened up. BlackStar covered his mouth to stop the last few laughs and Stein sat back on his chair only to mental curse at 'Agent Star'.

"Okay, now that we're settled, I would like to hear about the progress being made with each group," Lord Death sighed at how unsettled everyone was today.

"I'll take it from here," Kidd stood up. "We were assigned to find out information about what Maka knows about the BlackBlood as her undercover DWMA friends."

"So what does she know?" Spirit raised an eyebrow, clearly curious about any topic to do with his daughter.

"Well…" Kidd, Tsubaki, BlackStar, Liz and a distracted Patty all looked at together with sheepish faces. "We…we followed through with a plan and found out absolutely nothing," Liz sighed.

"May I ask, what was the plan?" Justin questioned, as he pulled out his ear-phones, not bothered to lip-read anymore.

"Well…" Tsubaki looked nervous as she spoke, "Y-You see we had gone through many plans and only one seemed plausible…"

"We decided to get her shit-faced drunk so she would tell us everything!" BlackStar exclaimed, not bothering to beat-around-the-bush.

All the adult's eyes widen in shock, especially Spirit's.

"YOU WHAT!" Agent DeathScythe yelled, jumping up from his seat, "YOU GOT MY BABY DRUNK!"

Tsubaki looked ashamed, "I'm afraid we did but there was no other way!" She panicked.

"When a person is drunk, their mind is at its most vulnerable to let go of information and they're less likely to be emotionally hurt," Kidd said as he sat down and closed his eyes.

"I suppose that makes sense," Hiro stated.

"THEY GOT HER DRUNK!" Spirit yelled, "I'LL KILL THEM ALL!"

"Spirit calm down, do you want to complete this mission or not!" Lord Death said reasonably, "If we don't find out where Kami hid the BlackBlood, this whole city will die and possibly the rest of America. This substance is highly dangerous and until Maka tells us where it is and until it is under quarantine, no one is safe!"

Spirit sat down with a frown, he was completely silent.

"Yeah, about that," Liz drawled out, "Well, Maka knows nothing about the BlackBlood."


	10. Part X

Cough,

Cough,

"Uuughn…" he groaned and winced in pain after a rapid coughing attack.

He could barely walk; actually he could barely stand let alone walk.

"Soul stay put, you're not fit to leave here," Maka said soothingly.

After the terrible events that followed entering Soul's cell last week, Maka had decided that she would just do it again. Why? Not because she was an idiot, because something in her told her that it was ok, that his pain was not a trick but the truth, and following her gut feeling turned out to be rewarding.

"Why-w-why are you-" he interrupted himself with more coughs.

"Soul lie down!" Maka yelled, frustrated. For the past five minutes Maka had been trying to set him on the bed but he would cough, complain about the pain or just insist that he didn't need help when clearly he was struggling.

"No! You- Argghh!" He yelled as she had accidentally pushed down on the massive cut bisecting his chest.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry!" Maka jumped back slightly, feeling slightly guilty.

"Nnngh…aww, argh!" Soul struggled and clutched his chest crossing his arms over his body as; once again, tears welled in his deep sad ruby eyes.

"Soul lie down…" Maka whispered into his ear instead of yelling as she helped him slowly relax back on the hard bed. "Here, try eating your lunch. You're not leaving here until you get better-"

"But-"

"Shhh!" Maka hushed, "I have to escort you and Noah now but since you're practically dying, you're staying here. After I take Noah down to the dining room, I'll come straight back up to you ok?"

Soul frowned, not that it was a big change in expression since he had been wincing the whole time.

"What?!" she unnecessarily yelled, not intending for it to be as loud as it came out. Seeing that Soul had no intention of replying, Maka sheepishly backed out of the cell, locking it back up as Soul remained in silence, "I'll be back shortly."

Watching her leave, Soul's frown grew softer and softer as he noticed how much he missed her warmth and smell. Actually, she kind of smelt like sulphur to him. Not the rotten egg kind from Hydrogen sulphide, just a weird metallic strange smell that he was very familiar with, back in the day when he was still and FBI agent.

"…tiny-tits…" he whispered as her footsteps echoed down the hall.

"Marie! I thought you were on Maternity Leave?" Tsubaki chirped, happy to see the pregnant mother walk in through the heavy mahogany meeting room doors with her non-smoking husband in hand.

"Well, I found it hard to sit in the house doing nothing all day while the baby didn't seem to kick anymore. I figured I might as well come and keep up with the investigation," Marie replied as she hobbled into her seat, taking Stein's hand under the table secretly like they always did.

"I told her not to," Stein rolled his eyes, "She kept insisting to come."

"Well that's good on you Marie," Lord Death praised, "it's good to leave a house once in a while."

"Yes! That's what I said!" Marie agreed.

Stein sighed, "Well as long as she is okay."

"So, what did you call us here for?" Azusa questioned.

"Well," Lord Death spoke, "I believe we have enough information to form a plan now."

"What? But we don't have any information at all," Spirit raised an eyebrow, "Maka didn't give anything away about where her mother hid the BlackBlood which I'm sure Kami told her about."

"And not only is that a problem," said Sid, "but since Marie has been on maternity leave, we have no leads on young Maka and the red strings of fate."

"Yea," Hiro sighed, "and since I've been off work for a while to go to these meetings and since Justin stays at the level 1 staffroom, we have absolutely nothing!"

"Everybody just calm down! It's okay, I've given this case a lot of special thought and I know that most of you will panic and disagree with the plan I have formulated but I want you to listen to the reasoning and stay calm until I give you the full story, is that clear?"

Team Spartoi nodded obediently.

Spirit frowned, catching Lord Death's eyes behind his mask in a stern questioning stare.

He could read it in his eyes…

Lord Death's inner sorry for him.

The Boss had that glassy look in his eyes before closing them, hiding them back behind the mask from Spirit's eyes.

Opening them again, the investigation team awaited his plan.

"We are going to kidnap Maka…" he said.

Plain and simple.

The group looked at each other, all reading one another's faces. Some surprised and some shrugged, agreeing before Lord spoke again.

"Not just that but I am afraid we will have to use the…'three degrees' method," Lord Death grunted, looking away.

Silence beheld the room.

That was until the younger group of the team spoke up, clearly too young and less experienced to know this specific procedure.

"What is this, 'three degrees' thing?" Tsubaki questioned, an elegant eyebrow raised in.

"SOUNDS FUN!" BlackStar exclaimed loudly, making Hiro cringe slightly at the volume.

"No, actually it is a very serious topic," Asuza closed her eyes, 'so it has come down to torture', she thought to herself sadly.

"What is it?" Liz asked, directing her attention away from her nails for the first time since the meeting commenced. Even Patty seemed to understand that it was not the time to be immature.

"No! Lord Death we can't do this!" Marie panicked before Stein held her hand tighter and hushed her.

"I completely agree! Look, I have sat through enough of this! I WILL NOT SIT AND WATCH AS YOU TORTURE MY DAUGHTER!" Yelled Spirit before knocking his chair over in the process of storming to the door with the fury and fire of the agent he was before the accident involving his wife and daughter. This had gone far enough in his mind.

"SILENCE!" Lord Death stood, making Spirit freeze in his tracks, his back still to the team and hand hovering just above the brass meeting room door handle. "Listen to my reasoning first!"

"Wait, you still haven't told us what this 'three degrees' method is yet, father," Kidd pointed out.

Lord Death sighed, trying to avoid the topic was impossible with his perceptive son.

"And what does Spirit mean by torture?!" Tsubaki exclaimed, shock and worry on her china doll face.

"Allow me to explain," Justin said, stuffing his iPod and ear phones into his back pocket and speaking up once again after being so silent, "After all, I am Agent Guillotine aka the executioner," He smiled at the title.

"EXECUTION?" Patty squealed.

"WHAT? Isn't that a bit drastic?!" Panicked Liz in alarm, "We really don't have to kill the poor girl!"

Spirit sighed, rolling his eyes before letting his hands fall limp into his pockets and closing his eyes, "The three degrees method is a desperate procedure of torture."

BlackStar, Tsubaki, Kidd, Liz and Patty were immediately plastered with wide eyes and shocked expressions.

Justin took over quickly. "Degree one: Ask for confession. Degree two: threaten torture. And lastly, degree three: torture until victim speaks."

Silence…

"No!" Tsubaki shook her head, "We can't treat Maka like that!"

"There is no other way!" Lord Death yelled frustrated. He was clearly not happy with the plan either but was using it as a last resort. "How long have we been investigating? Four months! How long has your Partner Agent Eater sat in that cell innocently rotting? Four months!"

Spartoi took this reasoning in silently, BlackStar being struck with sense at the mention of his best mate and partner in crime…Soul.

"I know that this seems extreme but in case you haven't noticed, Plan A didn't work! Maka being drunk, when her brain and secrets were vulnerable, we discovered nothing! I'm not willing to sit through another plan while one of my agents rots in jail and while the BlackBlood is on the loose! You don't understand the potential of that substance! It can and WILL KILL US and EVRYONE in America if we don't take action as soon as possible!" Lord Death took a moment to take a breath and calm himself down.

"This is plan B whether you agree or not. And I will ask now, if any of you want to drop out of this investigation, if any of you feel that torture is not something to you can handle or that you didn't sign up for it I ask you to leave the room now. If any of you try to stop the plan while it is in progress than I warn you there will be consequences! Leave now if you need…"

No one moved.

The room remained still.

Clearly no one was going to give up.

Lord Death looked on proudly.

Spirit turned around, "If this is what it takes, I'm willing to go through it," he sighed.

Everybody in the room agreed, smiles were upon their faces. No one was leaving.

Lord Death looked at his team, smiling behind his expressionless mask. 'Such a loyal group', he thought happily as Spartoi calmed down to discuss what exactly would happen.

"Are you alright?" Maka whispered tenderly in Soul's ear. He frowned in pain again.

Maka had led Noah down to the dining room and out for free time which lasted for two hours which meant two hours with Soul after she came straight back to him.

Maka's face displayed worry as she rubbed his bare back.

She had insisted on massaging him after noticing a tight knot at the bottom of his back. He had disagreed several times and turned down the offer but she kept insisting.

He actually felt glad that he gave in in the end as he had to admit, her hand felt like heaven on his sore beaten and lashed back.

"Do you want me to rub your neck and head too?" Maka whispered in his ear once again. Her breath like feathers and angle's kiss.

He was in HEAVEN!

"uuuu…*Cough* *Cough*..Ugh!...Umm…That would be cool….*Cough*."

He was terribly sick. His back felt like fire on her fingertips. Her face fell as she looked at him with pity. She had missed him for the past while after not seeing him, as much as she would deny it out loud.

She smiled and sat him up. Maka shuffled to get behind him sitting with her legs spread and the small of his back in-between them as he leant with his back to her. His head lying on her chest between her neck.

He sighed with comfort.

Maka worked and rubbed his neck as she occasionally looked down only to caress his temple with her soft lips.

This felt…nice. She thought to herself as they sat silently in in the evening glow from the small window.

It felt a bit…romantic…if she dare say it.

"Woman?" He asked her.

She frowned, he could tell even without looking at her.

"I told you not to call be that! MAKA is my name!"

"Yeah, yeah whatever *Cough* *Cough*ugh!...um…You do realise that you have to escort me to the showers later right…?" He wondered to her, smirking at her reaction. He suddenly felt like himself again, the real him, Agent Eater.

Her eyes widened and face flushed, just as it did the first time she took Noah to shower.

'He who had no Red String of fate' would be bare in front of her!

She couldn't decide if that was a good or bad thing.

She couldn't stop thinking about him as she sat on the red armchair in the staffroom.

It was late.

She had collected and already delivered the dinner to the inmates and was now lounging around as no one else was back yet from their last shift and she felt that she shouldn't leave the workplace without letting someone know.

She had taken Soul and Noah to the shower rooms to wash off and because Soul could barely stand, she had to help him…

He was decent enough to keep his underwear on though yet it was still awkward!

Suddenly, her phone rang from her bag on the shelf, interrupting further thoughts.

Ring,

Ring,

Ring,

R-

"Hello?" Maka answered it quickly, seeing as Marie's number appeared.

"Hey! Maka is that you?" The reply of the sweet kind hearted mother-like woman Maka cherished replied from the other side of the line.

"Miss Marie!" Maka beamed.

"Haha," She laughed slightly, "Maka dear, I was just calling to ask if you were busy tomorrow? I want to talk with you, not over the phone though."

"Um…Actually I have the lunch shift at work tomorrow…what about in the evening?" Maka asked.

"Yes of course, that's fine. I Just want to catch up here at the book store is all, sweetie," Marie smiled fakely, not that Maka could tell or see.

"Of course!" At that moment Kim and Jackie came in through the door. "Oh! Sorry but I'll talk more tomorrow! Bye Miss Marie!" Maka exclaimed before hanging up to talk to the other girls.

Marie smiled gently before hanging up as well. Little did Maka know that Marie was sitting in the meeting room with all eyes on her as team Spartoi had just got her to complete the first part of the plan.

To lure her in…


End file.
